Bitten & Constant Growling - Please Help!

[MaxBooBooBear]

I had a similar situation years ago (but not nearly as bad) with a german shepherd mix. She was about 2 when we adopted her. She was able to bond with me and my boyfriend–but I spent the next 12 years providing special care/management for her. I had a trainer evaluate her early on, and she distinguished between fear based "defensiveness" and "aggression." She said Pepper was being defensive out of fear. I loved that dog with all my heart and provided a good, comfortable, safe home for her until she had to be put to sleep due to kidney failure. I also brought in a basenji puppy (Max) early on, and she was able to live peacefully with him--but it did take special care/management again during the initial stages when we brought him home. She gradually got better as she got older--but also regressed in her very old age to be just very fearful (not defensive).

[direy01]

Good news! I talked with Angie Woods - the Atlanta Dog Whisperer who comes highly recommended by other rescue folks in the area - and we're taking Joey to her place Wed at 10:30 am. She wants him to stay with her for awhile, about a week I think, so we're going to board him one more night so we can just take him there right from the vet clinic. Her regular price is $1,200 but she's giving us a discount rate of $500 given the circumstances with him being a foster, etc. That's awesome!

And I've said it before but I'm just blown away by everyone's support. There are even a couple rescue groups here that are going to try to raise some money to help w/the costs. Absolutely amazing. And Sharron let me call her this morning to pick her brain and was so sweet and helpful. And and and.

I'm so thrilled that we have an actual plan of action now. Thanks so much for your guys' help and input! I'll let you know how it goes.

MaxBooBooBear, I'm sure we're going to have to do exactly what you did with Pepper in terms of taking special care/management for as long as we have him but if that's what it takes then that's what we'll do. Thanks for sharing.

[sharronhurlbut]

Honey, I am so greatful your willing to do all you can to see what you can do to give you dog peace.
I hope you get some answers soon.
Major hugs.

[Duke]

My hat's off to you direy01 - you're truly an amazing person to put yourself into working so hard with Joey. Strong training vibes are headed your way with Joey. Good luck - keep posting.

[basenji3]

good luck, best wishes I so hope this works for all of you. It so tragic that bad things have to happen to good dogs due to the uncaring of some previous
owners Rescue groups and good fosters like you sure change the lifes of so many that would have been lost Keep us all posted we are really rooting for you

[direy01]

Oh, thank you all so much. I know I sound like a pollyanna but I never dreamed I'd receive so much support from complete strangers.

Well we are meeting the foster coordinator at the vet clinic in about an hour to sign the adoption papers. We're even going to get to take him out and play with him a little bit! I'm sure curious to see how he'll behave. Then first thing tomorrow I'll pick him up and take him directly to the behaviorist. A rescue group recommended that I put together a fund raising page for him. We're getting a great discount to have him stay there for a week but truth be told we're kind of struggling right now. I hate to even post this here because everyone already does so much to help in their own communities but I thought I would. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'd be happy to do an animal painting that you could auction off or sell at an event to help recoup some of the money (although they probably won't sell for much!) I can share my art website if anyone's interested.

Thanks so much everyone.

[sharronhurlbut]

I would like to see your art website.
I think you should post it here if admin thinks its ok and maybe some of your work will sell to help you.
Hugs for doing all you are for this boy.

[agilebasenji]

Absolutely. You can't hint at talent and then not share.

[sharronhurlbut]

Might be a way to make some $$ to help your boy.
Just a thought.

[direy01]

Good idea. I just sent an email asking if it was ok to post my web address on here. I'll warn you, this ain't your grandma's art. How's that for a tease?

Well we saw Joey tonight and I have to say I couldn't even pet him. I didn't know they were going to let him out of the crate without a leash on and I nearly had a panic attack. I was a lot more afraid of him than i thought I'd be and I'm just standing there thinking what in the world are we doing? I can't even pet this dog, my heart's racing a mile a minute and he's coming home to live with us? And then the foster coordinator chimes in, "I've had plenty of dogs bit me. I just bite 'em back." Wow, really? Why hasn't anyone told me that's how you deal with an aggressive dog? Guess we don't need the behaviorist after all. Aaagh!

[Alex]

Hi direy01,

You can post your paintings forsale in our Classifieds section. We hope that can help. Best wishes to you and Joey.

[ComicDom1]

@direy01:

I'm a foster mom of a 2 yr old Basenji/Shepherd mix (?). With just a split second warning and no apparent trigger, he bit me the other day. This is the second time - he got my husband shortly after we rescued him about about 16 months ago. We immediately met with a well respected trainer who deals with aggressive dogs and followed her instructions to a tee, making sure he knows we're alpha, blah blah so I don't really think that's an issue.

He's always been a little snarly early in the morning and late at night but he'd always stop right away and would be fine like it never happened. But this time he went after me and bit me in four places, even tearing a foot long gash in my shorts. He "only" broke skin in one area but I got some pretty nasty bruises from it. Anyway, I was so shook up I went to my neighbor's house and waited for my husband to come home. About 45 min later we went back in our house and he immediately went nuts. Our poor coonhound happened to be in the line of fire and Joey (our Basenji) went after him too. My husband got him off so he wasn't hurt - physically anyway - and after a huge struggle, finally got him into his crate.

The weird thing is that once he was in his crate he literally growled and bared his teeth until that night when I was finally able to get a sedative for him. Even that didn't totally eliminate it. He'd been growling for nearly 8 hours straight regardless if anyone was in the room with him or not. I even took video of it because I've never seen anything so odd and thought it might help a behaviorist determine what's up. Anyway, the next morning I figured everything would be fine but as soon as I came downstairs he was at it again and was even shaking a little. He kept this up until I got him to the vet that morning. We had to literally carry the crate to the car with him in it because he was acting so vicious.

Since he's been at the vet, he's been nothing but an angel and all his bloodwork came back fine so he's seemingly healthy.

Has anyone seen this kind of behavior? Any thoughts? Please help!

Just out of curiosity, do you take your dog out for walks? If so for how long and how often? Also, have there been any changes in the house?

Thanks
Jason

[sharronhurlbut]

Do let us know when you get the site posted on the classified section.
I don't often check that out, as I then to spend..

[wizard]

Keep us posted on how things work out. Best wishes to you!!!!!

[Maxie]

@direy01:

I'm so sorry you had to go through that with your dogs. I certainly have considered a brain tumor or something like that. It's just too bizarre.

Can I ask you what you did in those cases? In terms of treatment and how you handled it? And I hate to even ask this but did it come down to having to put them down? I don't think I could handle that especially since what Joey has might be treatable.

For what it's worth, I just posted the video I took of him while he was in his crate growling and for lack of a better word, raging. Maybe someone can make some sense of it because it shows him going in and out of it. Mostly snarling but every once in a while he'll lean up against the crate and want to be petted. It's 15 minutes long (since I don't know how to edit it) but if you go just before the middle of it, you can really see him action. SIGH. I'll let you know when it's up - takes awhile after it's posted on youtube.

Hi Direy01,
Your story is heartbreaking. I can't figure out how to access your video? I'm having scarey snarling problems with my basenji. Can you or someone let me know how to view it? Thanks.

[direy01]

Hi Maxie,

I'm sorry to hear you're having some issues with your dog. About the video, I forgot to let everyone know that it was just a hair too big to post on youtube so I couldn't post it. I just thought of another site I could try. I'll let you know if that works.

What's your dog doing? Did it just start? Joey had been growling for awhile and has always been moody in the morning and at night but it had gotten worse a few weeks before he bit me. After ruling out anything medical, we pretty much decided it was behavioral so he's been at a behaviorist's for almost 2 weeks now. We bring him home Wednesday so we'll see how it goes. But I can tell you from experience the more we kind of slid back into letting him get his way with things the more he thought he was the head cheese. I think I said earlier that we followed the initial training tips to a tee but looking back I can see that the better he got, the more we let him get his way. Big mistake! He took it and ran with it to the point of thinking he was my boss. Hence the nasty bite I got.

So….maybe you need to show him who's in charge again? I'm sure that's obvious to you but thought I'd throw it out there. I'm happy to help any way I can.

To everyone else who's been so supportive on this forum, I'm planning on giving you an update after he's home for a couple days. I'm excited to have him home but a little apprehensive. Oh yeah, about my paintings, I didn't post them on here because I figured everyone was interested in only Basenji paintings and I'd never done one before but I have started on one that looks pretty cute so if I ever finish it I'll put it in the Classifieds section. (Wow, that's a long sentence!)

[sharronhurlbut]

Do keep us updated.
Also, do try to relax before he comes in.
He will p/u on your stress, so deep breathing and think it will all go well.
Hugs.

[ComicDom1]

I hope it goes well for you. I also hope you can remain calm when you take control of your dog. If you can remain calm, hopefully your dog will remain calm as well.

[direy01]

Boy, are you guys right about him picking it up on my nerves. I've never been around a dog who's so intuitive. We've gone to see him twice since he's been at "boot camp" and I even walked him and everything went well. He had his tail between his legs. Hadn't seen that since the day we rescued him! Of course I had a sense of security with the behaviorist being right there but I am feeling better about it. And yeah, deep breathing works wonders!

[Maxie]

Hi Direy, To answer you, after 1 year of sleeping in my arms w/no problems, my Bgirl began growling & snarling in my own bed. Snarling scared me, so she now sleeps on the floor. I really miss sleeping with her, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Best of luck with you and your doggie. I hope it works out! Also, yes, I do want to see the video . . . please tell me how I can do that. Maxie